Blueberry Breakfast Cake. Say that five times fast. I love alliteration. Almost as much as I love breakfast. And cake. And blueberry. So, when it came time to figure out what to do with some leftover summer blueberries, I decided to turn them into this iteration of a coffee cake in blueberry form. My friend Heather Hardison sent me her new book Homegrown: Illustrated Bites just before the craze of summer and our move hit. I dog-eared her Breakfast Blueberry Cake right away.
Blueberry Breakfast Cake
I’ve been following Heather for years over at Illustrated Bites. Her recipes are simple and seasonal. Where you’d expect pictures, you’ll find illustrations and hand lettering. The illustrations for this blueberry breakfast cake were a big part of what enticed me to try it. I’ve always been a sucker for beautiful illustrations.
Heather’s book is full of the same type of recipes, plus tons of (illustrated) tips from how-to-grow to how-to-handle produce which I’ll need next summer when I try my hand at gardening. Crossing my fingers I can grow some blueberries! My thumbs are not green, so we decided to take it easy this year and cover the backyard in mulch. It’s maintenance free minus the apple tree I hugged to save. I get the phrase now—the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, which is adjacent to our driveway. That’s not maintenance free. Hallie’s taken it upon herself to test each fallen apple. There are many.
I digress.
Maybe a bit presumptious, but I think it’s safe to say Heather and I share a similar cooking philosophy. Her recipes are simple and laden with vegetables. When she bakes, she uses grains, whole milk and whole milk yogurt, butter, and maple syrup—all staples in my kitchen. Her recipes make me feel right at home.
It’s a tall simple breakfast cake, plenty moist, mildly sweet, and heavy on the blueberries. The oat crumble on top is what really sells it. A slice is perfect as is, or served with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream or yogurt. I’m dreaming of making this breakfast cake again with cherries and almonds. If a breakfast cake could be nice, this is what I’d call her.
A simple, moist, lightly sweetened cake with a killer blueberry to batter ratio. Serve for breakfast or snack. Top with sweetened homemade whipped cream if you wish! For this recipe, I like to sweeten the whipped cream with both maple syrup and powdered sugar.
Ingredients
Scale
Cake
1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. maple syrup
2 large eggs
2/3 c. plain whole milk yogurt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 c. fresh blueberries
Crumble
1/2 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. pecans
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare 9″ cake pan or two 6″ cake pans. Set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream together butter and maple syrup until well combined and pale in color, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg, yogurt, and vanilla until just combined.
Add dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated. Fold in blueberries and evenly distribute in pan, smoothing out the top. The batter will be on the thicker side.
Make crumble by combining all the ingredients until evenly combined. Top cake.
Bake for about an hour. Halfway through, cover cake with foil to keep crumble from over-browning.
Allow cake to cool in pan atleast 20 minutes before removing and serving.
This blog is made possible by your support (thank you), select brand partnerships, advertisements, and affiliate links to items I love and use. READ MORE >
It was so easy to bring together and resulted in a truly scrumptious breakfast/snack/dessert (I’ve eaten it as all 3). I’ve never used cornmeal in baking before and I have to say, it is truly delicious!
The only deviation was the use of frozen blueberries so I ended up baking for about 70-72 minutes for it to be done!
How scrumptious! My basil is holding strong, but my squash plants are on their last leg. 🙁 It may be steamy during the day, but these midwest summer nights have been wonderful this week! 🙂 Not ready for any snow!
My gosh, look at it! You can hardly see the cake for all of the blueberries *love heart eyes emoji*. Is that why it’s called a breakfast cake? Because fruit? I can so imagine eating this with a big dollop of yoghurt! I hope summer has been good to you, Melissa!
I love summer. I love the heat and the sweat and how languid it is. I also love how it makes me long for sweaters and hot chocolate and snow. But to stay in season, this cake looks brilliant. I think I may have to make it with the blueberries sitting in my fridge. Thanks!
Oh how perfectly lovely! I don’t have much of a green thumb either, since the only plant that is surviving for me is mint and my basil is long gone, with the summer heat that’s been moving through. I hope your apple tree produces gorgeous fruit for you, can’t wait to visit again and see your lovely place! 🙂 xo
THIS. WAS. AMAZING.
It was so easy to bring together and resulted in a truly scrumptious breakfast/snack/dessert (I’ve eaten it as all 3). I’ve never used cornmeal in baking before and I have to say, it is truly delicious!
The only deviation was the use of frozen blueberries so I ended up baking for about 70-72 minutes for it to be done!
Thank you for the recipe!
Oh wow! I love the addition of cornmeal. Perfect with freshly baked blueberries. 🙂
So yummy and pretty!! I love how the blueberries stay intact!
How scrumptious! My basil is holding strong, but my squash plants are on their last leg. 🙁 It may be steamy during the day, but these midwest summer nights have been wonderful this week! 🙂 Not ready for any snow!
My gosh, look at it! You can hardly see the cake for all of the blueberries *love heart eyes emoji*. Is that why it’s called a breakfast cake? Because fruit? I can so imagine eating this with a big dollop of yoghurt! I hope summer has been good to you, Melissa!
You had me at cake for breakfast but seriously?! This cake looks absolutely incredible!!!
I love summer. I love the heat and the sweat and how languid it is. I also love how it makes me long for sweaters and hot chocolate and snow. But to stay in season, this cake looks brilliant. I think I may have to make it with the blueberries sitting in my fridge. Thanks!
This looks soo good! I’ll eat anything with blueberries in it…well, almost anything! 😉
Thiiiiiiiiiis. Yes. Just yes.
Cake for breakfast? Sign me up! 🙂 The oat crumble topping sounds great!
So glad you’ve been taking the summer for yourself! Glad to have you back. Heather’s book looks fabulous, starting with this cake 🙂
Gorgeous! Love all those blueberries! I’ll have to check out Heather’s book… sounds right up my alley!
Thank you for your sweet words about my book & recipe! You’re the best 🙂
This looks amazing! I will have to checkout that book, too. Thanks for sharing.
There is a step missing in the above recipe. I believe the fourth step should be to add the dry ingredients and then fold in the blueberries.
Thanks for the heads up! I’m away from my computer but will get it updated shortly.
Happy to see you back here! and with a lovely recipe. This cake sounds awesome!
I’ll be this would be great made with whole wheat pastry flour (soft white wheat)! I’ll try it and let you know. 🙂
Beverly
PS. Baby Benjamin is coming soon! Meghan is 32 weeks.
Oh how perfectly lovely! I don’t have much of a green thumb either, since the only plant that is surviving for me is mint and my basil is long gone, with the summer heat that’s been moving through. I hope your apple tree produces gorgeous fruit for you, can’t wait to visit again and see your lovely place! 🙂 xo